Live at Gen Con ’04: The Red Star

To call the world of The Red Star merely an alternative universe or alternative future is to do it a disservice. The comic book created by Christian Gossett seems to be so much more than that.

It’s about courage.

It’s about honor, and love and rage. It’s about everything that makes us human played out in the grandest of scales. Epic battles between good and evil, the struggles of mighty heroes against brutal enemies, sorcery and high technology are all a part of the world of The Red Star.

I’ve been a big fan of The Red Star. For a guy that has signed and numbered books, prints and graphic novels, it only seemed fitting that I would end up with a signed and numbered copy of the roleplaying game. Green Ronin brought a limited number of The Red Star d20 Campaign Setting to GenCon this year and without hesitation I dropped the 35 bucks for number 21 of 60.

I spent a little time flipping though the book and I must say, as a fan, I was not disappointed. It looks great. Green Ronin did the right thing by bringing the original artists and writer on board. A whole lot of work went into this campaign setting and it shows. Of particular note, from this first look, is the artwork – which is outstanding. Even artwork that was not done by the original artists, of the comic book, is quite good and reflects the mood and feel of the original comic book. Of major interest was the last section of the book which detailed the world and history of The Red Star. If you knew nothing about the The Red Star, before reading this section, you would most certainly know something about it after. You might miss out on the subtle nuances, of the major characters, which you could only get from the comic books and graphic novels, but you would definitely have enough to run a game. If you are like me and a big fan of the comic book, you will be surprised at the amount of information in this section, and how much it expands your knowledge of the series.

If you are a fan of The Red Star, or if you are just looking for something really different in a d20 Modern game where the struggle between heroes and villains takes on truly epic proportions, you owe it to yourself to look into The Red Star Campaign Setting.

I’m definitely looking forward to this release, so thanks for breaking it out as its own news item. I got turned on to Red Star last year by a friend. She all but made me go out and buy the first collection (a nice oversized graphic novel release rather than the usual TPB, by the way).

Green Ronin’s definitely an A-Class publisher in my book, and each release seems to only generate further excitement. I plan on getting Red Star, which will no doubt only hype me for the upcoming Black Company game. And let’s not even talk about WHFRP 2nd edition, or WH40K RPG…